Love Will Always Win
by HighOnCookies
Summary: Probably not continuing in the near future. Don't read, please...


_**I decided long ago to write a sequel to one of my best works. This is that sequel.**_

_**Disclaimer: If I owned Pokemon, there would be less Ash and more Gym Leader screentime. And there would be romance, too, and not just the regulars, like Poke/Contest/Penguin/Ikari ships. I'm talking weird, out-there crap like Vent and Marble. And the somewhat normal ones, like Moss and Senirasu, of course.**_

**_Note: Flint's little stunt at the end of the chapter? Plot device. Kind of. I wanted to have Byron tease Roark, and what better way than to give Flint a decent role? And I like writing Darcy, so she's got a bigger part than last time, too. Roark, Gardenia, Candice, and Volkner will still be the main focus, don't worry._**

**_This chapter also contains mentions of Byron/Fantina, Aaron/Maylene, and Lucian/Cynthia, because I love those pairings, too._**

* * *

The minute Volkner entered Snowpoint City's Gym, he regretted ever decided to come to this Christmas party. He didn't like crowds, especially noisy ones. However, he had committed to enduring this for Candice. The things love did to a person...

Seconds after he had brushed the snow off himself, he was ambushed by a familiar but somewhat unwelcome head of black hair.

"Miss me?" Darcy asked upon letting go, bouncing around like a Buneary on crack.

Volkner ignored the question and replied with one of his own: "What the _hell _has gotten into you?"

"Coffee," Darcy explained. "No freaking decaf around here."

Volkner would likely have replied with something not polite in the slightest when Darcy suddenly froze, before her eyes lit up. Volkner knew that look, and who could have caused it with merely a glance. He counted down in his head. _Three...two...one..._

"Hey, look who it is!" a voice, which Volkner was able to register as Flint's, cheered above the noise, right on cue. "And here I thought you weren't coming...but I guess that since Candice was behind the party, I should have thought differently, huh?"

"Why did Candice invite the two of you, anyway?"

"Gym Leader and Elite party," said Flint, by way of explanation. "But as to why the Gothic Barbie's here, my guess is as good as yours."

Darcy gritted her teeth over that one, and Flint didn't seem to be completely oblivious to the fact she was irritated. She explained her invitation. "The Gyms are closed for the holidays, and Candice wanted to thank everyone who helped drill the message she liked you through your thick skull..."

Volkner winced. In his defense, he hadn't known what his once-upon-a-time romance with Gardenia would do to Candice(or Roark, for that matter). But everything was all right now, except for the fact that all of Sinnoh knew. Volkner had to force the blame on Roark for that one, though he'd nearly forgiven the other man for his mess-up. He knew now that the red-haired miner had been answering questions for a news-reporter-in-training(her assigment, apparently, was to interview a Gym Leader) with such speed, when she asked "Do you have a girlfriend?" and he answered "Yes," the next few questions had dragged the entire story out of him.

"Yo, Volk! Spaced out for a second, did you?"

Flint's voice brought the blond out of his memory. Darcy had disappeared to begin an argument with Aaron about whether or not Drapion, being a Dark/Poison hybrid, could be classified as a bug, but the afroed Elite was staring at him curiously.

"I guess," Volkner admitted. "You haven't seen Candice anywhere, have you?"

"Headed over to Gardenia. Better hurry of you don't want to interrupt anything."

*

Gardenia and her new Carnivine were in one corner of the room, hiding behind a large Christmas tree and preparing to jump out at random people. Roark was a victim of Carnivine acting on her own.

It was obvious to anyone that Gardenia's Carnivine was born to be one of her Pokemon. Just as her trainer went crazy for Grass-types, Carnivine did the same with humans. Roark happened to be her _favorite_ human, next to Gardenia. So, she jumped onto the miner and gave him a big plant-Pokemon hug.

"Nice to see you, too, Carnivine," said Roark, struggling to break free.

Gardenia called Carnivine back into the little red-and-white ball, and threw her arms around Roark's neck. "What, it's not nice to see _me_?" she teased. She didn't allow him to answer, since she pulled his face down to hers and kissed him furiously.

"Get under some mistletoe, guys."

Candice's voice cut through their moment. Roark and Gardenia broke apart instantly, but Candice was grinning. Pointing to a spot a few feet behind them, she grinned, "If you could move back a few feet..."

Roark turned away, stammered something about his father(despite the fact that Byron had been talking to Fantina this whole time), and took off.

Candice chewed her lower lip thoughtfully. "Can't say that's ever happened to me. If someone interrupts _us_," there was an unintended reverence in the word, "Volkner just tells them to butt out and get lost."

Though Gardenia knew this perfectly well, she laughed. "Can't say I blame either of them."

Volkner's arrival was timed perfectly. The two fell silent as he walked up to his girlfriend, and Candice tried to ignore Gardenia's suggestive grin.

"You came!" she shrieked, throwing her arms around him. "I don't believe it! When you say _maybe _you usually mean _no_, and I thought..."

"You're lucky I love you, Candice," he answered seriously, causing her heart to beat just the tiniest bit faster than usual. "That's all I'm going to say."

She rolled her eyes. "Merry Christmas to you, too, Volkner."

"Well, I'll just leave you two alone," Gardenia drawled, backing away slowly. Then, with a quick wink at her friend, she took off into the crowd.

*

Later on, as the party atmosphere was going down, Flint found himself deep in thought. He was an entertainer as well as a battler, and he had something planned to end it with a bang. Of course, he needed a victim. Preferably female, though at this point, he'd take what he could get.

_Let's see_, he thought, examining the female partygoers. _Volkner will break my nose if I tried this on Candice, Bertha's too old, Maylene's too young, Fantina's sort of got this thing for Byron, Gardenia's taken, Cynthia's with Lucian..._

"Hey, Darcy!" he called, addressing her by her name for the first time all night. She turned her head slightly in response.

"What do you want, Flint?" she demanded, extending him the same courtesy.

He took a breath to calm himself. "Listen, Darce, I know this will piss you off more than anything I've ever done before, including calling you a Gothic Barbie to your face, but I can't hide it from the public's knowledge anymore." He took her hand in what appeared to be a romantic gesture, and the room fell into stunned silence. Flint waited until he could hear a pin drop, then continued, "I know you're related to my best friend, but it's not like you're his sister or anything. It will be way less awkward than that. What I'm trying to say is, I love you. Marry me?"

Darcy stared, as did Lucian and Crasher Wake. Bertha shook her head and muttered something about being too old to put up with this crap. Maylene burst into hysterical laughter and would have toppled over had Aaron, fighting back laughter himself, not caught her. Byron dropped his shovel, which made a loud clattering sound as it hit the hard floor. Candice, Gardenia, Cynthia, and Fantina gasped collectively(though it wasn't from the shock of what was being said so much as it was the shock of who was saying it), and Volkner's mouth fell open.

"Flint, what the fu-" he started, but was elbowed in the ribs by Candice.

"Come with me," Darcy snarled through her teeth, and, dragging him by the afro, she pulled Flint into a distant corner of the Gym.

"That," said Byron, grinning at his son, "is definitely going to be the proposal of the year."

"No doubt about that," Roark agreed.

Byron fought back a chuckle and tried to appear serious as he lowered his voice so that only Roark would be able to hear. "Unless, of course, you can one-up him."

"Dad!" Roark whined childishly, somehow managing to look away out of embarrassment and glare at his father at the same time.

Byron burst into laughter, completely unaware that everyone was watching them now. "I was just kidding! No need to get worked up about it..."

Roark caught Gardenia's curious look, and shook his head. "Don't ask," he mouthed at her.

Their conversation was interupted by Flint's return.

"She said yes, everybody!" he called. "Well, actually, she called me a butthead, among other things, but in Darcy-speak, that could translate to..."

"Don't even _think _about going there, McDonald," Darcy warned, before storming out of the Gym in a huff.

* * *

_**Yeah, what Byron said to Roark sounds a lot like something my own father will say to my brother. Like, in the distant future, when he(my brother of course!) gets a girlfriend...**_


End file.
